November 29 - Aches & Hallelujahs

Tuesday November 29 has brought us back the typical Belizean weather we have come to enjoy and appreciate.  The sun is back.....and by the time we are done loading the daily water supply and ourselves on the school bus we are bemoaning the fact that it is hot.  Again...as usual.....by the time we start our work.....God has provided a cool soothing breeze to sustain us.  Providence!

Today.....like every other day....Pastor Bernie has beaten all of us (and the sun) out of bed.  It sure is great to be able to head straight to the coffee pot when we get up....to enjoy some of his special Belizean brew.  After a wonderful handcrafted breakfast we are on the way to the worksite.  There is a short pit stop today.....a local farmers market for some fresh fruit (and 1 extremely hot pepper) for lunch.  As we arrive at the site.....like a well oiled machine..... we begin unloading and setting up for the day ahead.  Although we are all different ages and capabilities.....this crew from CCRC is turning into a seasoned constructor.  The work today consists of forming and pouring window lintels, shuttling materials by hand from the ground up to the second storey, cutting, bending, and tying re-bar, cleaning and tidying all areas of the site, mixing concrete, and the carpentry crew is busily preparing forms for the main support columns.  The forming and pouring of the main support columns of the back school wall is the last of the big tasks that we are hoping to finish.  Sandra K. has joined us at the work site again today......and appears to be feeling back to normal.  (We can tell by the fact that she is outworking all of us today.)  During our lunch break today some of the crew goes next door to see Oscar.....a local artisan and woodworker (who doubles as the church and school janitor) to view his products and briefly watch him ply his trade.  Some (or maybe all) of us will be bringing a piece of his handiwork back home with us.  At the end of the day we have achieved the goals for the day and also have 1 formed column ready for concrete tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be our last work day at the site, albeit a large and heavy workday.....as our hosts have decided to take us on an expedition on Thursday.  Friday (the Lord willing) will be a long travel day on which we return home.

The Belizean lady who does all the cooking for us has decided to send us a minor variance for supper today.  As usual we all anticipated a rice dish......but she shook us up when she made us Chicken Chow Mein. (Just when you think you are getting to know someone  :0) ....but the Chow Mein was a much appreciated change of pace.)  After another time of reflection and devotions.....the crew decided to do a little shaking up of our own.  We played Mexican Train Dominoes tonight.....instead of the usual 5 Crowns card game.  A day of change!

The mood on the crew seems to be a little more up beat today in comparison to Monday (manic Monday).  This could be attributed to the fact that the sun is shining again, that Sandra is back at the site, or that we know that the reality of completing our mission and returning to our families is one day closer.  (Could also possibly be because Pete H won at 5 Crowns last night and we all wanted to celebrate for him.)

We continue to feel your support and prayers for our mission here.  We pray daily as a group.....but also continue to covet your prayers for safety on the remainder of our mission, travelling mercies on our way home on Friday, and that the work we are doing here will be a blessing to the Belizean people for many generations and all the beautiful children that we have met and come to know.

Beunos Dias!

Monday, Nov. 28

Monday dawned with clouds and cool temperature - for Belizeans 17 degrees Celsius is cold! But for us hardy Northerners it was excellent working weather. The work ahead of us is well planned. The construction progress is quite noticeable. The perimeter walls are close to being finished. But progress is slower because cribbing for the lintels over the classroom windows and doors needs to be handbuilt. Pete H. and Manuel are the carpenters, while others rotate around the need to make concrete and pouring it into the crib forms. Over the weekend the first concrete lintels have dried out and cured somewhat and now the rest of the lintels are being made. Rebar (the steel rods that are buried in the concrete) has to be cut and shaped to fit the cribs. This involves 5 persons and the rest of us are busy with laying block and pointing them - "pointing" is the filling in of the joints between blocks....usually done by some of the women of our crew.
        Pastor Earnest Betson is "under the weather" today, so we are conscious of missing our "spark plug" for Belizean encouragement. We pray that he'll soon be up and energized. He and his wife ("Honeybunch") are the real leaders in this community of Unity Presbyterian church and school. Carolyn Betson is the principal of the school and is very busy between teaching and problem solving in school administration.
      Tomorrow, we hope to begin the construction of the pillars which will hold up the roof of these classrooms we are building now. A great deal of gravel is hand-pulleyed from ground level to the second floor in 5 gallons pails just half full. The wooden planks needed for the cribbing (or forms) needs to be cleaned a little from previous use, and all nails taken out....tedious work, but necessary.
    What we do enjoy at the end of our day, after supper, is our time of sharing impressions of our day and a Scripture study based on the book of James. Faith that Works is the theme, and it is work that needs to be done in humility, aware of local leadership, local know-how,and at local pace. We grow in grace this way, knowing that we are to be mutually encouraged. We are more aware of each other's abilities and we depend on each other for getting the whole job done.  We are aware that we are bering prayed for. Thank you everyone for these prayers of encouragement.

saturday and sunday

Saturday, Nov. 26.
The team is well oriented to what needs to be done by now. We get up on Saturday morning and our site leader,Harry Oudman orients us during breakfast. We've developed diversity of duties and can rotate around different tasks. So, Saturday morning the call is to make the cribbing above the doors and windows of the interior long wall and pour them full of concrete so that they can cure over the weekend. Pete H., Harry O., Leo V and Jon. O., are busy loading pails of gravel and sand and mixing the concrete on the floor, pouring the mix into pails that are hand-carried to Dick O, on the scaffolding and poured into the crib. Joyce D. and Samara D., and Janet B. are busy with making the rebar cages that are placed in the cribs to be buried in the concrete. These rebar cages strengthen the lintels over the doors and windows in the event of earthquake. So, we rotate around the tasks and we finish the task by noon! The local builders we work with are equally happy with our progress. The back wall will hopefully be finished by Wednesday next week.
      We've had one team member come "under the weather", but by the evening, all is well. Having a team member stay back at our hostel allows for laundry to be done. We've developed an easy exchange of tasks and we check with each other about tiredness and over heating....it is very warm and today it is muggy. A brief rain shower allows us a break.
    After lunch back at the hostel, we had a chance to wander around downtown and some of the tourist area where the water taxis bring in passengers from the cruise ships. The is a delightful mix of sights, colours and activities every where you look. Sounds of traffic, street vendors, taxi drivers offering rides, folks asking for handouts, and the smells of outdoor cooking, fish market, and garbage.
What is really ironic to see is the Christmas lights and decorations....and the carols broadcast over the PA systems of the large department stores. Santa looks like he's sweating in his suit of red, and the music greets the shopper..."let is snow, let it snow, let it snow."
      One of the highlights of the day is our evening devotions time, a reflective study based on the book of James. We have engaging and thoughtful sharing lasting over an hour. We grow in grace this way and discover that God wants authentic faith - words and actions. Such a theme really connects with what we hope to accomplish here. We're in prayer for each other that we'll be safe and healthy, that our families back home are in good spirits and confident of our safety here.
We're usually in bed by 10:30 pm. Bunk beds for all except for one room for one married couple.

Sunday morning, Nov. 27...a day of worship and seeing the town on our own. Close by is a historic church (1776) of Anglican origin. The church has two morning services and the theme for the week is Safety for women against domestic violence. Worshippers are dressed in their best, school kids come in  uniform and the singing is tremendous. All around the sanctuary are plaques of hsitorical moments in the church's life. We leave early because we are guests of Pastor Earnest and we will attend one of the churches that he pastoring - St. Andews Presbyterian in downtown Belize City. There are many youngsters in the congregation who come by bus from an orphanage and we connect well with them. Pastor Bernie is invited to bring the message. Belize City has many churches and it is good to see them well attended, althought the city workers don't seem to have a day off because there was street repair going on right in front of the church as we left. Some of out team members join the bus ride bringing the kids back to their orphanage and get a tour of the town along the way. Belize City sure is a city of contrasts of richness and poverty, of well-appointed lawns and homes and the squatters shacks near the school where we work.
   Our afternoon is spent playing cards, reading, relaxing and walking about town. What we see creates many topics for serious conversation on the responsibilities of believers & the church in the face of poverty and the great needs that are so evident. We're thankful that we can contribute to the dreaming of church leaders here. They dream of great things for their people... the church as a place of refuge and hope....the Unity Presbyterian School (a public school) as a place where youngsters can prepare for greater challenges and education to become life-changersfor their families and others.

   The evning is closed out with a worship service at Unity Presbyterian church, the other congregation Pastor Betson is responsible for. We join with others in experiencing the vision of Rev. 7, where people form every tongue, tribe and nation giving praise to God.

Wednesday to Friday

Greetings from Belize. Here is a summary of a typical day so far.
6:30 wake up
7:00 breakfast (there about)
8:00 our harrowing drive through Belize city, our Vaseline slicked bus as we squeezed through city streets to get to the work site.
8:45 our site leader Harry coordinates our jobs with Manuel and we begin hauling blocks one by one up to the second floor with a pulley.
Some are laying block, some pointing, some mixing mortar, sorting wood, pulling out nails, hauling stone and rebar. Some have been spending time assisting in the class since this is government exam week.
We've been making great progress!
We stop for our lunch of rice and beans with a bit of coleslaw and either chicken or beef then back at it.
We work till around 4:30 when our bus comes to take us back through the tight streets of the city.
We bargain for the much needed shower and relax out on the porch and enjoy the breeze off the ocean which is only 30 feet in front of the house.
Our supper comes around 7:00.
We've had Buritos, Enchiladas, chicken, rice and beans. We chuckle at the plastic spoon we get with our lunch, no fork and no knife to eat rice, salad and meat. It's wonderful.
We appreciate it so much!
After our evening devotions we play games and head to bed.
We see such a huge contrast between things we aren't familiar with, the rich homes and the squatter homes where we work. The school is surrounded by a squatters village. All of them are built up on stilts since the area is a swamp. There is one faucet for several homes. They throw their garbage right out the window. Apparently it's "landfill". Laundry is all done by hand and hung out on rope or wire or whatever is handy. The children are wonderful! They are full of fun and love to spend their break times with us.
Tuesday we celebrated Hank's "special" birthday and on
Wednesday we celebrated with Pete the precious new granddaughter born to Mike and Nicole.
Thursday we had turkey at lunch celebrating American Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, our first day!

After a safe trip to Belize, we were thankful that everything went very smoothly. Our fears for our boarder crossing were absolutely needless because all three vehicles crossed the boarder within 10 minutes. We were all amazed!
Pastor Betson drove up in a dilapidated old school bus that was built sometime in the 60's.
We were blown away by his enthusiastic, warm welcome with big hugs, "I love you's" and "You are special". He is wonderful and incredibly passionate for the ministry at Unity school, and for the well being of the youth in the community.
He took us immediately to see the school where we met many children and staff. We were awestruck with the surrounding "squatter's" homes all around the school. It was shocking for us to see garbage and waste and such poverty here. Housing is indeed in the swamp!
The school has been built up about six feet above ground on a type of stilt or pier system. It is like a beautiful flower growing amongst thorns.
was a a long tiring day. We arrived at the pastor's house where we settled in, had some dinner

UNITY PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOL - BELIZE CITY, BELIZE

UNITY PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOL - BELIZE CITY, BELIZE

Our work for the next 12 days will be to work alongside local construction workers to complete the last three classrooms on the second floor. Our stay there is not only to work, work, work but also to interact with our hosts, the school children, community and perhaps even participate in some classroom activities.

We look forward to meeting Pastor Ernest & Carolyn Betson, this is the couple who minister to the people and started a church plant in a poverty stricken area of the Capitol. They saw that many children did not attend school, perhaps because of lack of money but mostly it was not important to parents,so in 2007, the Betson started Unity Presbyterian School where Carolyn is now the principal. The growth in enrollment has been phenomenal, hence the need for more classrooms.

Belize, the smallest of the 7 Central America countries only has a population of approx. 335,000 people and is bordered to the north by Mexico and the west by Guatemala, and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. There is much to be said about Belize’s history, government, natural resources and economy but the combination of natural factors---climate, Belize Barrier Reef, the many islands, fishing, boating, jungle and wildlife reserves that the government has deemed tourism as its second development priority after agriculture.

2 days to go---------hank

One week to go - Departure for Belize Nov. 21 2011

Hello everyone

It's hard to believe after months of preparations, prayers, meetings and fundraising, here we are, one week to go before we fly out from Buffalo to Belize to continue the work so many teams before us have started. Our desire is to go in His Name and I pray that we go in humble service, to be blessed and to be a blessing as much as God has blessed us. Pray that we will be good representatives, faithful to Jesus and the gospel and as we work along side, listening to their stories and spending time with our hosts and in their communities may all this help us to discern what is our role even when we return home. Pray for safety, strength, good relations. Pray that patience,kindness, goodness and faithfulness will guide our path, that all we do be to the glory and honour of His Name. 

My name is Hank Stronks and it has been my privilege to lead several teams from Community CRC to El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and now Belize. Our team, this year consists of thirteen people, all from CCRC, they are

Pete & Joyce Douwes, Bernie & Linda DeJonge, Pete Hansma, Sandra Krammer, Harry Oudman, Leo Veenstra, Janet Barry, Dick Oldenburger, Jonathan Oldenburger, Samara Douwes & Hank Stronks, half of whom have never gone on a STM trip.

We go under the auspices of Edu.Deo Ministries but are thrilled that Jesus has invited us to the greatest adventure ever, John 20:21 says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you”. What a privilege! What a opportunity! We thank each and every one of you who have so generously supported this endeavor, your passion for supporting a Christ-centered education and wanting to pass this on is the same conviction our forefathers had when they arrived in Canada. Thank You so very much. We thank also those who so willingly have volunteered to drive us to and fro from Buffalo, Richard & Barb Krammer, Clarence Damsma & Sid Klooster.

We hope you keep in touch, via this blog and we will do our best to update daily with pictures and comments of our activities.

hank